Willingly
by MegaNerdAlert
Summary: Hermione's idea to stop the inbreeding of Pureblood society is warped into something far more drastic than she'd ever imagined. Efforts to regain control end up bringing her former Professor into the equation, and lucky for her, Minerva is willingly there to pick her up when she falls. MM/HG - MARRIAGE LAW FIC


**I seem to have lost momentum in my various projects (lack of sleep will do that to a girl), so in an effort to get back in the saddle, here's a oneshot for you. Recently someone challenged me to write a fic based on "The Marriage Law" idea, so this fic is dedicated to that person. :) Enjoy.**

* * *

"I beg your pardon?" Minerva McGonagall let out, quite certain that the look of utter disbelief on her face was something Kingsley would chuckle over for years to come. Minerva was not an easy woman to surprise.

"I thought it best that you find out from me," Kingsley said, and to his credit, he did not betray any sign that he was laughing, though given the circumstances, he'd be hard pressed not to find a reason to. "If you had been born by September..."

"One bloody month," Minerva muttered. "Who in the name of Merlin came up with this stupid idea anyhow? What right does the Ministry have to arrange marriages?"

"I fought it, Headmistress," Kingsley said. "But the Wizengamot outvoted me two to one. I never did get a name for who came up with the idea, but alot of people seem to feel that if the Ministry decides who marries who, it will prevent all the purebloods from marrying each other all the time. This will not only help old prejudices die, but it will weed out alot of the health problems that inbreeding has created among purebloods. The war took alot of lives, and created alot of hate. The Ministry feels that it is their responsibility to ensure that our kind flourishes in a time like this."

"You know," Minerva said hesitantly. "I do see the merit in the plan. For the younger generations, this could really help heal the less physical wounds, and contribute to the future of our kind, but it's not like I can have children at this point in my life, so what's the point of someone as old as me being forced to marry?"

Kingsley blushed before stammering. "You, uh, have been paired with someone, er...younger."

Minerva laughed. "Minister, me being married to a younger man doesn't change that I'm too old to have children."

"It's not a younger man. It's a younger woman." Kingsley said in so much of a rush that Minerva had to repeat it slowly in her head before she understood.

She didn't have to ask what difference that made. As a Transfiguration Mistress, she could easily change her own biology to make herself 'male' where it counted. In fact, she'd done so a few times before with a lover she'd had years ago. What blew Minerva's mind right now was not that the Ministry was enforcing a marriage law, but that the law would pair people of the same gender together. In her generation, homosexuality was rather frowned upon, which was part of why she'd ended up marrying a man, though she found she enjoyed both male and female company.

Minerva took a deep breath, whispered a prayer to Merlin that this woman she was going to have to marry was not a Slytherin, and then asked. "Well, out with it. Who is she?"

Kingsley's eyes widened, as if he had expected that the last thing he'd told her would have gotten him cursed, and then answered her question with a barely noticeable shake in his voice.

"Hermione Granger."

Minerva's eyes widened noticeably. Of all the people in the wizarding world, it would have to be the one person she cared about so much that it hurt her to even think about causing stress for. In this moment, she decided that a Slytherin would have been better. Minerva knew that she could easily come to love Hermione, but there was no way that Hermione would love her that way, which meant that Minerva was backed into a corner which meant that it was inevitable that she'd hurt her former student. "Damnit," she cursed.

* * *

Hermione Granger had always been remarkably keen of mind. _Insufferable know-it-all_, Severus Snape had once called her. Her well hidden defiant nature had taken her deceased Professor's words as a challenge, causing her to prove to the whole world that being smart would get her places no one else could go. Another of her former Professors, Minerva McGonagall, had also been a very smart person, and Hermione had spent her seven years at Hogwarts striving to be as much as McGonagall was, if not more. After the war ended, she and many of her classmates had returned to Hogwarts to complete their seventh year, as even those who had been at Hogwarts the final year of the war had not completed the work needed to even consider taking NEWTS.

That said, after graduating, with the highest marks since McGonagall had taken her NEWTS of course, she'd taken a job at the Ministry in a lesser known Anthropological Department. That particular department was in charge of studying the history of Wizards, and developing laws that would preserve the past and future.

The new Marriage Law had been her idea. No one would ever have expected it of her, and in fairness, the original idea had just been to create a law that gave the Ministry the authority to select husbands or wives for those who came from two or more generations of siblings or cousins who'd married. Growing up, she'd known that purebloods often married cousins, but upon starting in the A.D. she's discovered a sickingly large amount of wizards who married siblings, though to some comfort they were often half-siblings. Infidelity seemed to run ramped in the pureblood society, and no one make a stink about it because it gave them more close relatives to breed with.

The idea had gotten out of hand when Draco frigging Malfoy had stuck his nose into it. He'd taken his father's place on the Wizengamot directly after graduating, and when he'd heard about her idea, he'd thrown a fit, saying that if purebloods should have Ministry arranged marriages, then so should everyone else. At that point, the rest of the Wizengamot had started discussing the pros and cons of the idea, and to Hermione's shock, they'd decided that there were more pros than cons to having wizarding marriages arranged. All of them.

The only way Hermione could think of to regain some control of the situation was to offer to start a new department that would be in charge of researching those eligible for marriage, and doing psychological evaluations, so that those paired together would stand a better chance at not being miserable. It only took about ten minute to sell her idea to the Wizengamot, and now she was head of the Department of Marital Affairs. The formation of this new department ended up creating about fifty jobs, which everyone thought was good for the economy. She'd hired researchers, councilors, psychologists, a few Aurors, and more than a few paper pushers to take care of informing people when their marriages had been arranged.

Now the age cutoff thing had been something totally out of her hands. If a person turned sixty five before the law was put into effect, which had been today, September first, they were not required to marry. Oh, Hermione had enjoyed every bit of the terror on Kingsley's face when she reminded the man who'd chosen the age that the Headmistress of Hogwarts would not be sixty five until October.

It was then that Hermione remembered where Kingsley was at the moment. It had been Hermione's idea to use a muggle computer program to store data about each witch or wizard – interests and other factors that contributed to compatibility – and let the computer randomly select matches. This prevented anyone from accusing the Ministry of making biased selections. Of course, her own idea would come back to smack her in the face. No, no one could accuse Hermione of choosing her own marriage partner, especially if they worked in her department and saw her faint when the computer informed her that she was to marry Minerva McGonagall.

That had happened yesterday. She'd gone screaming and hollering to Kingsley as soon as she'd come to – this was all his bloody fault. He was the Minister of Magic. He should have never let her present the Wizengamot with the idea of a law governing who could marry who. He should never have picked sixty five as the stupid arbitrary number. She had told him point blank that he would be the one to inform Minerva, and that he would do it personally, not just send an owl. After everything Minerva McGonagall had done for the wizarding world, she deserved that much. Unfortunately, Hermione knew that no matter who told the esteemed witch, Hermione was going to have to face her eventually.

* * *

Minerva was not surprised when the following afternoon, Filius came to inform her that Hermione was here asking to see her. Minerva's deputy had lucked out in this whole marriage law fiasco, as he and Pomona Sprout were already married, and therefore would not be paired with someone they did not already desire. "Show her up," she told him, and a few minutes later, the former Gryffindor was walking tentatively into her office.

"Hello," Minerva greeted the younger witch carefully. "I suppose we have something to talk about."

Hermione paled considerably, and Minerva's insides twisted to see her former student's eyes so filled with discomfort. "Hello, Professor," she replied quietly.

"Miss Granger…Hermione," Minerva corrected herself. "You might as well call me 'Minerva' and get used to it, as I've already read the new law quite carefully and could find no loopholes."

Hermione coughed. "Yea, I know there's not," she replied quietly. "As I helped write it."

Minerva's brow furrowed. "You're involved in this Ministry absurdity?"

Minerva listened carefully as Hermione explained all that had happened to bring about where they were today. Her idea, how the Wizengamot had twisted it into something it was never meant to become, staying involved in the development in hopes that she could prevent it from getting any more out of hand, right down to the fact that Hermione had passed out cold when the computer had decided that they were suited to each other.

"You fainted?" Minerva chuckled.

"And you wouldn't have if our positions had been reversed?" Hermione wanted to know. "Honestly, I had prepared myself for being paired to someone I would never have considered. I'd considered what life would become, and whose children I might one day have. I even thought a bit about being paired with Draco Malfoy, as I know that we have many common interests. But never in a million years had it occurred to me that I might be paired with you."

"Well," Minerva muttered, "I'm sure you could come up with worse people to end up stuck with. I realize I'm not…"

"Merlin, don't take it like that,"Hermione interrupted her. "I was getting ready to say that if I am to be part of an unlikely pair, I'm glad that it's someone I already know I can have a decent conversation with – someone I already care for. Granted, I'll admit it's been a few years since I thought about you… 'that way'."

Minerva was stunned for the second time in so many days. "Are you saying that you…"

"I had a mad crush on you for most of my third year," Hermione admitted. "After that, I dismissed the feelings as an impossibility and did my best to keep my thoughts about you platonic. It took me most of my fourth year to master the skill, though now, I guess I needn't have mastered it at all."

Minerva leaned forward and took Hermione by the hand. "You know, when Kingsley came to tell me about this law, and then told me that it was you that I was to be married to, I was upset - not because I disliked the idea of being with you, but rather because over the years I've known you, I'd come to care for you a great deal, and was afraid that being forced to marry me, it would destroy the friendship we'd already begun to form, one which I was hoping would continue to grow as the years go by."

Hermione smiled gently, and squeezed Minerva's hand. "But this wasn't the kind of relationship you wanted us to have," she said pointedly.

"It's not the kind of relationship I expected to have with you," Minerva corrected, "nor had I even considered it as a possibility. Even if I had, at whatever point, developed feelings for you beyond friendship, I would never have suspected that you might feel the same, or that you ever had more than friendly feelings for me. You hid your teenage crush perfectly."

Hermione blushed. "Not perfectly enough. Harry confronted me about it a few times, though I never admitted anything to him."

Hermione's openness about the feelings she'd once had for her opened the door to the possibility that this forced betrothal might simply be fate pushing them together, when they otherwise would never have pursued each other. Minerva didn't want to presume, however she would prefer to go into this marriage with both parties being happy and willing, and that meant they needed to be honest with each other. "Hermione, aside from that teenage crush, have you ever been interested in another woman, or do you as a rule prefer men?"

The younger witch looked puzzled for a moment, before her eyes lit up with understanding. "You're not strictly straight, are you?"

Minerva chuckled. This girl was too damned smart for her own good. "No, I am not. I enjoy the company of either sex, though I was married to a man - he passed away years ago - more out of a desire to be socially accepted than anything else. However, that's a conversation for another day, and you have not yet answered my question."

Hermione bit her lip, obviously thinking about her response. "I've been with men and women before, though I find that I prefer women when it comes down to it. Before this law, I had intended on marrying a man regardless, for the same reason you did. While homosexuality may be more accepted in my generation than it was in yours, as one of the Golden bloody Trio, I know that being subject to the public eye was my lot in life and I didn't want to give witches like Rita Skeeter more reasons to write about me."

Minerva rolled her eyes. "Rita knows better than to come anywhere near me with her quill, so I can offer some protection in that regard."

Hermione's curiosity was piqued. "I have some dirt on her myself, enough to put her in Azkaban, but she still tries to get at me. What on earth keeps you safe - and I know you're safe because I've never heard her even mention you in one of her articles."

Minerva smirked. "You first."

"She's an illegal Animagis," Hermione explained.

Minerva smiled devilishly. "I know, as I was the one who taught her. In her day at Hogwarts, Rita was not too different than you were - "

"Ugh, don't say that!" Hermione groaned.

"She was exceptionally bright, and had a thirst for knowledge that rivaled anyone else I knew at the time," Minerva continued. "I wont bore you with the details, but long story short, my husband died shortly before the end of her seventh year, and she offered me comfort when I needed it most."

Hermione's face contorted. "You had sex with Rita Skeeter?"

Minerva crossed her arms. "Just once. I was very upset, and very drunk at the time, so give me a little bit of a break. By far one of the dumber things I've done in my lifetime, but the point I'm getting at was that the next day, I told her that we could not doing _that_ again, and after that, she changed. She took her thirst for knowledge and became obsessed with gossip. The sexually open minded girl I'd known turned into the homophobic lunatic of a reporter she's known as today. She was over seventeen the night we had sex, so legally, I have no reason worry. I don't go shouting it on the rooftops because I'm not particularly proud of that memory, but I told her a few years later, when she attempted to write a story about me that was decidedly untrue, that if she ever published anything with my name in it, or even a hint about my doings, I would inform the public that we'd had a relationship. Rita doesn't fear Azkaban - but she does fear being made a mockery of, which would be the result of my exposing that bit of her past.

"I understand," Hermione said, nodding. "And explaining who she was then does remove the 'ew' factor of you being with her. I know people change. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. If I can have pity on Tom Riddle, I'm pretty sure I can find room to pity Rita as well."

"Hermione..." Minerva began slowly, winding herself up to jump off the cliff she was about to. "Before we trailed off talking about Rita, I was going to say something."

Hermione sat of straight and nodded. "Well go on then," she said with an encouraging smile.

"When Kingsley told me it was you I was going to marry, I was upset..."

"You told me this part already," Hermione reminded gently.

"I'm trying to work up my nerve, woman!" Minerva snapped.

Hermione giggled at the outburst. "Sorry, keep talking."

"I was upset because I was worried that being with me would hurt you, and I really don't want to hurt you, because I've known for longer than I'd care to admit that I could easily fall in love with you, and you don't hurt people you love." Minerva finished in a rush.

Hermione was silent for a minute. "Well that's convenient," she replied after a bit. "As I figured out last night that I could easily fall in love with you, too."

Minerva smiled as Hermione's lips descended on her own. The kiss was naturally returned and after a few seconds, noses were nuzzled and the pair sat down in their respective armchairs. "I realize this is a bit early in the relationship," Minerva said, looking into Hermione's beautiful eyes, "but will you marry me? Willingly?"

Hermione didn't hesitate in her reply, and though her voice was not giddy like most girls when proposed to, her answer was firm and sure. "Yes, Minerva, I will."

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**Please review! I wanted to put a twist on the typical Marriage Law fics, and I'd covet your thoughts on how well I did at taking an old idea and turning into something fresh.**


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